Thursday, 17 November 2011

It's been a while since I have thrown a blog together so I thought I would talk a bit about what I do during the quiet period following the end of the race season.

Top of the Black Mountains

For me the end of the season was the World 100k Champs in September. After that race it was about conditioning for the start of the next season which is looking to start around April next year with the World 100k in Italy.

The nice thing about this part of the year is you can really enjoy your running, no pressure on focusing for a specific race but simply get out there and run. I was down to race in the Snowdon Marathon but cancelled that to do some serious 'time on feet' training and not worry about racing.

Essentially the training is based on doing around 2 hours running during each working day (split into 2 sessions) trying to fit in a couple of 10mile tempos during the week, with a good long run at the weekend on hills, mountains and trails. In addition to this I wanted to focus on week back to back ultra long runs. For me it's about the miles, in that it's about time on my feet, running on tired legs and learning how my body reacts to long hours of running and dealing with complications (bad periods).

Next, I will continue with this kind of mileage and will be looking to run again with Terry focusing on some night running along the downs (all night) again to practice running in the cold, feeling tired and without natural light. Of course this is great training for 100m runs.

Oh an a wee race on the Brecon Beacons on 3 December is on the cards.

Can you spot me running down the hill?

Really enjoying running at the moment running with some guys who have great talent and share the same level of passion for this game!